The Imirt Irish Game Awards return for 2026 to celebrate the best of Irish Games from 2025!
Teams should nominate themselves for awards, and can put forward multiple games in multiple categories as appropriate. Submissions open 22nd of Jan and close on Mon 9th of February at midnight. Judging will follow and an awards ceremony will be announced after that.
Eligibility Criteria:
- You must be an Imirt Member in order to submit your game. You must be a member at the appropriate band. Operating businesses should be corporate members.
- Game must be largely developed in Ireland (either RoI or NI)
- If your game is only partly made in Ireland, please submit only for categories where that discipline was largely based in Ireland (e.g if art was largely completed in Ireland, then submit for best art).
- Game must have released between 1/1/2025 - 31/12/2025
- Games which were launched in early access in 2025 are eligible, but may not be submitted as a full release game in subsequent years (i.e. decide when it’s best to submit it for you, each game should be considered for one Imirt Irish Game Awards).
- Games launched on new platforms in 2025 are eligible, but may not be submitted again under another platform (i.e. decide which platform is best for you, each game should be considered for one Imirt Irish Game Awards).
- Expansions released in 2025 to games released prior to January 1, 2025 are eligible as their own submissions.
- Experimental games are encouraged to apply.
- Games must be made available to judges free of charge for evaluation.
We ask that all submissions include a five minute video showcasing the game in the category being applied for. This can be gameplay with developer commentary. For example if submitting for best narrative, use the video to showcase writing & narrative.
Categories
Our show will contain thirteen awards categories in total, with three categories being user voted.
Developers can submit themselves for eight categories, and will be automatically submitted to remaining two categories as a result. Developers can also submit their game for Best Upcoming Game and the community can submit individuals for the Rising Star and Community Hero awards.
You can submit to one of these categories:
- Best Game Design
- Best Storytelling
- Best Art Direction
- Best Game Audio
- Best Technical Achievement (now open to games and development tools!)
- Best Analogue Game
- Best Student Game
- Best Experimental Game
All submissions to the above will also be automatically included in the following categories:
- Game of the Year 2025
- Best Debut
You may submit to multiple categories by including additional submissions with different videos.
We also have three categories that will be voted on by the community:
- Most Anticipated Game
- Emerging Talent
- Community Hero
You can make submissions to any one of our categories by clicking the links in the members area of the Imirt Website. You must submit with the appropriate membership. This means that games made by a studio (ie with a registered company) must be a corporate member.
You do not need to be a corporate member to submit someone to the Best Student Game, Emerging Talent & Community Hero categories.
If you have questions about submitting, please contact Imirt via contact@imirt.ie or on the Imirt discord server.